Bomb near car explodes in Nigeria, wounding 5BASHIR ADIGUN and JON GAMBRELLPublished: Feb 19, 2012 2:36 PMSULEJA, Nigeria (AP) - A bomb planted by an abandoned car exploded outside a church in the middle of a worship service Sunday near Nigeria's capital, wounding five people amid a continuing wave of violence by a radical Islamist sect, authorities and witnesses said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast outside the Christ Embassy church in Suleja, a city near the nation's capital Abuja. However, the area has been targeted in the past by the sect known as Boko Haram - including the Christmas Day car bombing of a Catholic church nearby that killed at least 44 people.

The explosion happened just after 10 a.m. as the church began its service, Pastor Uyi Idugboe told journalists. Security guards at the church had noticed something suspicious by the abandoned car, prompting the pastor to call everyone inside the church before the service began, he said.

The bomb also apparently had been wrapped with a motorcycle chain, which sent metal shrapnel flying everywhere when the explosive detonated, witnesses said. The explosion tore away the engine compartment of the abandoned car and damaged four other vehicles nearby.

One person was seriously injured in the blast and taken to a local hospital, local police spokesman Richard Oguche said. Another four people suffered minor injuries, said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.

Authorities began to put up roadblocks Sunday afternoon to keep onlookers away and traffic snarled around the city.

While police continued to investigate, suspicion for the blast immediately fell on Boko Haram, a group that has been waging increasingly bloody attacks against Nigeria's weak central government.

Members of the sect have been blamed for killing at least 289 people this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. The group's leader says its campaign of violence also is aimed at avenging Muslim deaths and pushing for strict Shariah law across multiethnic Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people.

The sect's attacks, including those specifically targeting Christians, have widened distrust between the two faiths in Africa's most populous nation. Nigeria is largely split between a Christian south and a Muslim north, and most of Boko Haram's previous attacks have taken place in the north.

Bombs have struck Suleja in the past. During Nigeria's April election, a bomb planted at an election office in the city killed 16 people. Another bomb at a church exploded in July in the city, killing three people.

In nearby Madalla, another town in Niger state, a car bomb exploded outside St. Theresa Catholic Church there, killing at least 44 people. Authorities have blamed all the previous attacks in Suleja on Boko Haram.

Meanwhile, authorities blamed the group for killing two people Saturday in Nigeria's northeast. There, gunmen shot dead an Islamic cleric and a local politician in separate attacks, police said.

Almost anything published about Islam must be read through the thin gauze of political correctness that ignores the menace of Islam to those living in Muslim nations and in nations where they gain a population foothold.

It is a 'religion' that sanctions stoning women to death, decapitating “infidels”, and even sending children into mine fields to clear them.

It is pure barbarism and has zero tolerance for freedom of speech, the press, other religions, or independent thought.

Al Jazeera-English and Sara Ganim, the reporter who broke open the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, were among the winners of George Polk Awards in Journalism, announced Sunday by Long Island University.

Ganim is a 24-year old crime reporter for the Harrisburg Patriot-News whose dogged pursuit of a grand jury investigation helped her uncover one of the biggest scandals in the history of college athletics. She won for Sports Reporting.

The reporting of Ganim and some of her colleagues was instrumental in uncovering a lurid history of alleged sexual abuse and rape by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, a loyal lieutenant of Joe Paterno.

Paterno, the winningest coach in college football history, died Jan. 22, just a few months after the university dismissed him. Many suspected he was complicit in covering up Sandusky’s actions, though both students and alumni of the school protested his firing.

A Polk Award for Television Documentary marks another substantial achievement for Al-Jazeera English, the burgeoning network that had its biggest year to date in 2011. AJE expanded its global reach to 250 million homes, penetrated major U.S. markets such as Chicago and New York, and continues to receive awards for its coverage of the Arab Spring.

AJE, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in November, took home its first DuPont award in December and won this prize for its documentary on Bahrain, titled “Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark.”

“We are delighted to have won such a prestigious and coveted award,” Al Anstey, managing director of Al-Jazeera English, said in a statement. “This recognition comes on the back of a series of high-profile award wins for the channel, and is a testament to Al-Jazeera’s commitment to put honest, eye-witness reporting at the heart of the global news agenda.”

The Polk Awards have been administered by Long Island University since 1949. They are named after George Polk, a journalist killed covering the civil war in Greece.

Other winners this year include the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, the New York Times’ C.J. Chivers and Ira Glass, host of radio show “This American Life.”

Times employees won two different awards while Anthony Shadid, the Times’ foreign correspondent who died in Syria last week, won a posthumous special award.

Troops on the U.S.' largest base in Afghanistan have inadvertently burned Qurans and other religious materials, triggering angry protests and fears of even larger demonstrations as news of the burning spreads.

The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened around 11:00 p.m., according to NATO and Afghan officials.

The workers doused the flames with their jackets and mineral water before marching out of Bagram in a fury, carrying with them the charred remains, according to Sabir Safar, secretary of the provincial council of Parwan, the province where Bagram is located.

By the morning, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of Bagram and on the outskirts of Kabul. Some shot into the air, some threw rocks at the Bagram gate, and others yelled, "Die, die foreigners." Many of them were the same people who work with foreign troops inside the base. At one point, apparently worried that the base would be stormed, guards at the base fired rubber bullets into the crowd, according to the military.

"They should leave Afghanistan rather than disrespecting our religion, our faith," Mohammad Hakim told the Associated Press outside of Bagram. "They have to leave and if next time they disrespect our religion, we will defend our holy Quran, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body."

There is perhaps no action that enrages Afghans more than foreigners' mistreating the Quran. It taps into widespread doubt of whether Americans respect Islam as well as deep frustration that, more than 10 years after the Taliban were overthrown, violence remains widespread. Qurans are supposed to be buried or released into a flowing river if they need to be disposed.

NATO officials scrambled furiously to contain the fallout, tweeting and emailing reporters not long after the first protests began. Gen. John Allen, the commander of all foreign forces in Afghanistan, released a statement, then a video statement, then gave an interview to NATO television. In his and in all NATO officials' communication today, each emphasized that the burning was unintentional.

"Those materials were inadvertently given to troops for disposition and that disposition was to burn the materials. It was not a decision that was made because they were religious materials," Allen told NATO TV. "It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam. It was a mistake, it was an error. The moment we found out about it we immediately stopped and we intervened."

Allen launched an investigation and promised to take steps that the same incident would not be repeated.

"This is not who we are. These are very, very isolated incidents," Allen said. "We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them, we believe in their country, we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future."

In the morning, U.S. officials on Bagram escorted local Afghan elders to the site of the burning. Ahmad Zaki Zahed, the chief of the provincial council, said 60 to 70 books had been recovered from the fire, including Qurans that were once used by detainees at the base.

"Some were all burned. Some were half-burned," Zahed told the Associated Press.

The protesters' fury was immediate, but Afghan officials eventually calmed them down by the afternoon. They demanded to see President Hamid Karzai and threatened to resume demonstrations.

Previous reports of Quran burning have led to deadly protests in Afghanistan. In April, 2011, after a fringe protester burned a Quran, a mob in a usually peaceful northern city stormed the United Nations compound and killed at least seven foreigners. In May, 2005, Afghan police killed at least four demonstrators angry over a report that an American interrogator in Guantanamo Bay prison flushed a Quran down a toilet.

While today's reaction was quick and furious, the protests might have been larger if it wasn't snowing and if it had happened at a different time. Many Afghans did not know about the burning because it occurred late last night and news is generally consumed during television newscasts in the evenings, at home. Many Afghans and Westerners fear that protests could get larger Wednesday and the rest of the week.

"Past demonstrations in Afghanistan have escalated into violent attacks on Western targets of opportunity," the U.S. embassy said in statement known as a Warden Message, sent to Americans living in Afghanistan. "U.S. citizens in Afghanistan should remain vigilant and avoid areas where Westerners congregate. Avoid large public gatherings or demonstrations. Do not discuss travel plans or other personal matters with strangers, or in public."

Far to the south, in an area where a surge of U.S. troops has removed many Taliban safehavens, insurgents reminded the local population that they still held considerable sway.

In the Washer district of Helmand, insurgents beheaded four people they accused of spying for the U.S., according to the Helmand governor's spokesman. The Taliban denied any involvement in the executions, claiming they were carried out by Western intelligence officials to bring the Taliban a bad name.

The Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is expected to join the Connecticut Civil Rights Coalition at a press conference Tuesday to urge Gov. Dannel Malloy to protect the rights of Muslim students in the state.

The coalition's request comes following the revelation that the New York City Police Department spied on Muslim students at Yale University in New Haven and other northeastern universities without warrants, legal jurisdiction or probable cause.

A press conference will be held at noon to ask Malloy to probe Muslim spying by the NYPD and will ask for efforts to protect Muslim civil rights by Yale University and local law enforcement.

The press conference will be held in front of New Haven City Hall on Church Street.

The gang was eventually smashed by police who arrested 11 men who yesterday appeared in court charged with a variety of sex offences against children, including rape, trafficking, sexual assault and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.

Rachel Smith, prosecuting, said the girls were not regularly in school and would simply hang around town with nothing to do. She said the men, who all knew each other, befriended the girls at two kebab shops, Tasty Bites and Balti House, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Two of the men worked in the takeaways while four other men worked as cab drivers at local taxi firms, one was a student and four were jobless.

Miss Smith said the teenage girls were given food, alcohol and money by the men in return for sex, and a pattern of abuse began.

She told Liverpool Crown Court: ‘There were also times when the girls were subjected to violence to secure for the men the opportunity to have sex with them.

Mohammed Amin (left), who denies sexual assault, was among the defendants on trial along with Abdul Qayyum (right)

‘There were also occasions on which one or more of the girls were so incapacitated by alcohol and/or drugs that they were incapable of having any control over whether or with whom they had intercourse.’

The court was told some of the defendants took payment from other men in the group and then supplied them with the girls for sex.

But some of the girls were allegedly raped and physically assaulted and some were forced to have sex with ‘several men in a day, several times a week’.

The jury heard that five teenage girls, all younger than 16, suffered at the hands of the group of men between 2008 and 2010.

Miss Smith told the court the vulnerable girls all came from broken homes and one was also in care at the time of the abuse.

She told the jury: ‘The events and circumstances described by the girls are at best saddening and at worst shocking in places – no child should be exploited as these girls say they were.

Abdul Rauf (left) denies trafficking for sexual exploitation while Mohamed Sajid denies trafficking, two counts of rape and one allegation of sexual activity with a child

The court heard that the girls, some of whom believed they were the girlfriends of their abusers, were driven around to houses in Greater Manchester where men came in and out of bedrooms to have sex with them.

When they tried to refuse they were held down and raped. One later told police she was vomiting over the side of a bed having had a cocktail of alcohol when three men came into the bedroom and raped her.

Liquat Shah denies two counts of rape

She told police: ‘They were just having it in turns sort of thing. There was nothing I could do, I was throwing up...’

Miss Smith said that one girl, who was 13 when the alleged abuse began, told police that the men she met were ‘friends’ who looked after her and ‘her number would be passed around amongst the Pakistani men in her area’.

The girl is said to have told officers: ‘They pass it to their friends and they pass it to their friends, end up with a massive circle... everyone’s got it.’

Miss Smith said: ‘The prosecution say that what this girl was describing was the group activity of a number of adult men, including these defendants, who had spotted the opportunity to sexually exploit children who were vulnerable to that sort of exploitation and were taking it.’

The court heard that it was ‘common knowledge’ among the defendants that the girls were underage and that one defendant, Abdul Aziz, would give one 15-year-old lifts to school while another, Abdul Rauf, asked one girl if she knew anyone younger.

The court heard that on one occasion a 59-year-old man, who cannot be named, met two girls at a takeaway where they were given food and vodka.

He demanded sex from one 15-year-old, saying: ‘It’s part of the deal because I bought you vodka, you have to give me something.

Miss Smith said the girl refused and he raped her. When the girl started crying, he said: ‘Don’t cry, I love you.’

Obama tried to elevate Soros’ J Street anti-Israel lobby to the status of a major Jewish organization. A status that was completely undeserved and baseless. J Street has failed in its mission and that leaves major Soros funded groups like the Center for American Progress and Media Matters naked in their bigotry.